Army... looking forward

Last weekend was the Army race weekend. Things didn't go quite as planned. Munas and Spohn both skipped out in order to try and get themselves back together. Andy did donate his car, however, which was clutch.

Team Time Trial
The Men's A TTT team consisted of myself, Chris, Jeff and Rhodney. We were not all that smooth, and had a huge difference in fitness, with Rhodney and Chris both riding extremely well. I wasn't quite feeling that great, so basically Jeff and myself would work to the front, and pull very quickly and get off. Chris was drilling it... but the Bucknell machine behind us still caught us, putting a minute into us. We ended up quite a ways down... not the best showing.

Road Race
I was looking forward to laying some hurt down on the fast finish to this race, but the uphills got the worse of me. I started the first climb right at the front, and faded a bit into the field, but nothing too major. The second lap I was the first rider starting the climb, and was the last over the top. I'd have to pull something special out for the last two laps. Well the third lap comes along and the rubberband stretches and snaps. Take a look at my Polar output from the RR. The light, bright red is HR while the darker red is altitude. (5 points for anyone who figures out what the lime green line is). You can definitely see that even though I got popped off on the third big incline (3rd lap) my HR didn't crest 180 like it had on the previous laps. I hope that this stems from not being well enough nourished to start off the race... and not some indication that I wasn't recovered enough. In any event, I'm taking it easy this week before Easterns, and eating A LOT after the TTT.

Uphill TT
What the hell am I doing an uphill TT one might ask. I weight 180lbs. Well, I want to score points, and score points I did bitch. I think that this shorter effort was more up my alley. Helping even more was the fact that I was chasing down Justin in front of me. I actually got pretty close to catching him on the second little grade near the stadium at Army. Certainly I was going good, because Justin won, but a little too good. I faded a bit near the end as the course kept rising a bit too much for me. Still managed a 6th, for 24 key points.

Criterium
This was my chance to make up even more points. I felt decent, and had a few digs off the front trying to get someone to come with and get a good break rocking. I don't think the weather was going to allow a break to roll through the corners that much faster than the small field we had, so it all stayed together. I tried my had at some primes, with only points coming out from one of them. Finished decently in 7th, but really should have been smarter on the last lap. Army had a legit leadout that I will not miss at Easterns, though I doubt I'll see those guys at the end of that crit.... I hope to be by myself.

Easterns in Poughkeepsie, NY at Vassar this upcoming weekend. Looking forward to possibly stamping my name on the Men's B field despite not having scored any points in a road race yet. I'll have to this time around, though, if I want to score a snazzy medal.